Libs promise right turn for new SA tram

Steven Marshall will add a right turn to a new tram extension if he becomes SA premier.

A right-hand turn will be added to Adelaide's controversial east end tramline extension at a cost of $37 million if the Liberals win the March 17 state election.

Opposition Leader Steven Marshall said the turn - at the intersection of King William St and North Terrace - should have been included in works currently under way, to take the line past the Art Gallery and to the site of the old Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Mr Marshall said failing to include the right turn was one of the government's most "cynical, stupid and ultimately costly transport decisions".

"The decision to axe the right-hand turn from the original plans for the extension of the tram down North Terrace was driven by Labor's need to have a ribbon-cutting exercise before the state election," Mr Marshall said on Thursday.

He said a Liberal government would "fix Labor's mess" in the first term.

"It's going to be in the budget from day one," he said.

The Labor government insisted the complexity and cost of including a right-hand-turn could not be justified and would actually make traffic flows worse.

Mr Marshall last month slammed a Labor promise to extend the tram network through to Kent Town and Norwood, the heartland of his Liberal electorate.

The following day, he said he would consider another Labor plan to extend the tramline along O'Connell St into North Adelaide.

Premier Jay Weatherill said on Thursday the opposition leader was "utterly confused" and took aim the Liberals' $37 million right-turn pledge.

"It doesn't take you anywhere," he said.

"It doesn't take you any further than our vision, which is to rebuild our tram network out to North Adelaide."